Month: November 2018

aging · fitness

Christine’s ‘Face Gym’ Is An Eye-Roll And A Smirk

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

A while back, Sam posted this link about the world’s first face gym without comment:

https://www.fastcompany.com/40547973/the-worlds-first-face-gym-wants-to-make-your-head-sweat

My reaction went something like this…

A face gym?

A FACE GYM?

Is there nothing the beauty industry won’t try to shame us about?

Then my eyes rolled out of my head and I had to spend some time patting the floor to find them.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the target market for this gym. I wear make-up sometimes, mostly because I like the ritual nature of putting it on.  I use moisturizer so my face doesn’t feel tight, but I am not regularly checking out the mythologized  ‘7 signs of aging’ (according to the Oil of Olay prophecies). I’m not even sure what those signs are.

I get irritated by the idea that I am supposed to want to look younger. In fact, I get irritated by the whole idea that youth is an aspirational thing in any way.

I’m with (the late) Carrie Fisher on the whole thing, really.

Photo of (deceased) actor Carrie Fisher ( white woman with light brown hair who is leaning on a window in the left of the photo, with a quote at the right. 'Youth and beauty are not accomplishments. They're the temporary happy byproducts of time and/or DNA. Don't hold your breath for either.'

And it’s not that I don’t get why things like a ‘face gym’ feel important – we’ve all been sold on the idea that our faces are our fortunes and the most youthful possible versions of our faces are worth even more. Every message we get is that youthful beauty is the only way we will be ‘worth’ anything in the world.

But if we don’t push back against some of these ideas then we will spend even more time chasing perfect appearances – as dictated by someone else – and we will have even less time to do the cool stuff we are actually here to do. We have inherent worth and the more of us that stand up and say that, the easier it will be for everyone to take up their space.

The thing is, I don’t exercise because of how I will look, I exercise because of how I will feel. And getting poked and prodded at a face gym does not sound like exercise and it does not seem like it will feel good.

If a face gym sounds like something you need, go right ahead, but understand what you are buying into – the idea that you are not good enough the way you are.

The author, a white woman with chin length reddish hair and a round face, is smirking. She is wearing red lipstick and brown eyeliner. There is a window and a green wall behind her. Here I am doing one of my personal face gym exercises – full smirk. i am probably also causing wrinkles. The HORROR!
I am also showing what I think of the idea that you are not enough just the way you are. (I am skeptical about that to say the least.)

I’d rather see you buy into the idea that you are not a damn decoration and your face is terrific just as it is.

PS – I didn’t even get into the whole nature of the privilege involved in being able to spend $70 for someone to rub rocks on your face. That is a whole separate monster.

PPS – Besides, I am pretty sure the idea for the face gym was stolen from my Great Aunt Lucy who was telling my mom about how to pat her face to stay youthful over 50 years ago. Ha!

fitness

Moderate Fitspo Works for Me #tbt

Tracy I1 Comment

Moderate fitspo anyone? I find these moderate messages to be a breath of fresh air and hope you do too.
Here’s to keeping it real!
Tracy

motivation

Change, Comfort Zones, and Saying Nope

Christine Hennebury7 Comments

I know that growth requires some discomfort.

I recognize that change is challenging.

I understand that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is pointless.

However, I still HATE being told that I have to step out of my comfort zone.

For me, even the phrasing is upsetting.

It’s a disorienting piece of advice, like being told to abandon everything you know and leap into the unknown.

My immediate reaction is to say ‘NOPE.”

A drawing in blank ink on white paper of a young person with bobbed hair. They are standing next to a ladder that leads to a diving board that extends over a very small swimming pool. They are saying the word 'Nope.'
Luckily, I have no comfort zone when it comes to sharing my drawings. I’m still learning and I mess stuff up regularly
but as long as they make the point I was trying to make, I go ahead and post them.

So, I was really expecting to agree with Melody Wilding’s Please stop telling me to leave my comfort zone it seemed like it was going to be the sort of advice I use with my clients.  I was expecting to be disappointed that I hadn’t written the piece.

That’s not how it worked out.

Even though she and I share a lot of the same perspective on the value of ‘comfort zones’ and the same distaste for being told that leaving that zone is the only way to grow, I found her depiction of leaving a comfort zone to be very odd.  It was as if, for Wilding, there were only two states of being – living in a comfort zone or constantly maximizing your stress.

That’s a very extreme view. It’s no wonder that she wants to stay in her comfort zone if the only other option is full crisis-mode.  

I don’t want anyone to regularly spend time in full crisis-mode, that’s not good for your health. However, I also don’t want anyone to stay confined to a ‘comfort zone’ if they want something else for themselves.

That’s why, when I have to coax my clients toward change, I encourage them to EXPAND their comfort zone. To take small risks, be slightly uncomfortable, and gradually increase what the actions and activities that they are comfortable with.

I tell them that change is difficult and it can be uncomfortable. And I remind them that some people enjoy the disorienting feeling of jumping right into something new. If my client doesn’t enjoy that feeling, then there are lots of other ways to change and to grow – slowly.

It will require a certain amount of willingness to be uncomfortable, and maybe even a few minutes of panic, in some cases. However, they can build up their tolerance for those feelings.

And, in talking about this whole issue with some of the other Fit is a Feminist Issue bloggers, I came to realize that there was an aspect of the issue of comfort zones that I had been missing. 

Since I am firmly pro-comfort zone, I didn’t know that there are people (Hi Mina!) for whom the comfort zone is actually UNcomfortable – it feels too safe, too easy, too controlled.  So getting away from that comfortable feeling feels GOOD to them, they aren’t ‘stepping outside their comfort zone’ in the same way I am. They are stepping TOWARDS something that feels better for them.

(So, perhaps there are multiple kinds of comfort zones. Maybe some are about staying the same and some are about constant change, depending on what feels right for you.)

But, when it comes to what we usually mean when talk about comfort zones (i.e. staying in a ‘low-risk’ area skills-wise), I agree with Wilding about their importance. There is a lot of valuable work to be done from within an individual’s comfort zone, a lot of good things come from there. I don’t advocate making yourself miserable for no reason, or worse, just to show that you can step outside your comfort zone.

And I think that she and I are probably operating in some of the same spheres – calculated risks, small steps, gradual growth –  but I think that there is something off about setting up comfort and panicked stress as a dichotomy.

Ultimately, these quick snippets of advice that get tossed around as memes are lacking in nuance. They are one-size-fits-all and it can be annoying the way they held up as received truths.

When you are trying to make changes in your fitness, your self-care, or in your habits, you have to take your own path.

Maybe you thrive on the stress of the unknown and you love the challenge of overcoming your discomfort and meeting your goals. If that’s the case, keep stepping towards what feels good.

Or, maybe you are more like me (and, apparently, Wilding) and you find that full-on discomfort is overwhelming and prevents you from making progress toward your goals. If that’s the case, keep taking those small steps outward and EXPAND your comfort zone until you are where you want to be.

Neither approach is bad or wrong in itself.  It just might be the wrong tool for a given person and we can’t presume that our approach is the ONLY way to get things done.  Obviously, different tools work for different people 

One of my favourite writing quotes is by A.J. Liebling  – “The only way to write is well, how you do it is your own damn business.”

The same principle works when it comes to making changes – “The only way to change is by changing, how you do it is your own damn business.”

So, my question is, how DO you like to change?

Do you jump toward that feeling of discomfort or do you prefer to deal with it step by step?

Book Reviews

Books for fit feminists and friends!

Sam B

There are parts of my Dean’s job that feel like work–tenure and promotion meetings, anyone?–important work, yes. But still work. And then there are times when I’m just thrilled to be associated with the College of Arts at Guelph and the thing that I’m doing just feels like fun, not like work at all.

As Dean I get to attend musical performances, art openings, and theatre.  Also, book launches. Last week we had our first big snow and I walked home and then bundled up to walk downtown to the Bookshelf/ebar  to watch two fantastic women colleagues in History launch their new books.

Full disclosure: I own signed copies and I’ve listened to them read from their books but I haven’t read them yet. Still, it strikes me that they’re books that readers of this blog would like very much.  In Thumbing a Ride: Hitchhikers, Hostels, and Counterculture in Canada Linda Mahood explores the rise and fall of hitch hiking in Canada. In Be Wise! Be Healthy!: Morality and Citizenship in Canadian Public Health Campaigns Catherine Carstairs and her co-authors examine the history of public health in Canada. These books connect with our themes of adventure and travel, as well as health education and healthism.

Looking for holiday gifts? All of your friends already own Fit at Midlife? Then, consider these titles!

Oh, oh, oh. I also love that they had non-alcoholic punch at their lunch. Thanks Linda and Catherine! (I’m hoping to get them both on board as bloggers too. Wish me luck.)

fitness

Before and after and beauty

Sam B2 Comments


Precision Nutrition posted on Facebook an article by their head John Berardi, “Before and after photos: Inspirational and effective OR demoralizing and unethical?“

He writes, ‘Before and after photos are a staple in health and fitness. They’ve been used to market new programs, document physical changes, and celebrate progress. But some say they trigger negative feelings about body image and feed a cultural obsession with thinness. In this article we’ll explore both sides and leave you with best practices for using them, if you choose to.”
You know our view. Tracy and I both did a year of Precision Nutrition and liked lots about it. But we both hate the photo shoots, before and after. Here’s my letter to them about it.

Here’s Tracy OMG it’s the photo shoot again and When Precision Nutrition lean eating lost me.


I’ve been thinking about it again because I’m reviewing a philosophy book Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal by Heather Widdows. It’s a great book and one chapter looks explicitly at before and after photos.

I like her If you want to lose weight, ask yourself: is this really self-improvement? She questions whether we should care as much as we do about appearances.

“In a visual and virtual culture, it’s inevitable that appearances matter. But should they matter most? There are many other ideals to live by – being kinder, more creative, more knowledgeable, more honest. How we look is not the best measure of who we are. So before you go ahead and purchase that gym membership, you might want to think about what it really means to be your “best self”.“



What do you think of before and after photos? Love them, hate them?
Woman walking through parking lot, with attractive little trees in background. The real news from the US physical activity guidelines: everything counts.
fitness · health

The real news from the US physical activity guidelines: everything counts.

catherine w2 Comments

Last week, an updated report with the newest physical guidelines for physical activity for everyone was released by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The last edition came out 10 years ago, and the new version, informed by the latest research, is saying this:

Move more. Sit less. Do all kinds of activity– aerobic, muscle strengthening, bone strengthening, balancing (this one’s very important for older people), and multi-component activities that combine these features.

Aim to do 150–300 minutes a week of a combo of moderate-intensity to vigorous-intensity level activity. This means anything from walking 2–4mph to running.  Cycling and swimming, depending on speed and effort, can vary. Lower-intensity activities are good, too, although more intense activity is needed to get the most benefits.

Why should we do this? The guidelines give us the low-down (this was from a JAMA article):

Strong evidence demonstrates that regular physical activity has health benefits for everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, or body size. Some benefits occur immediately, such as reduced feelings of anxiety, reduced blood pressure, and improved sleep, cognitive function, and insulin sensitivity. Other benefits, such as increased cardiorespiratory fitness, increased muscular strength, decreased depressive symptoms, and sustained reduction in blood pressure, accrue over months or years of physical activity.

So, we get benefits now and benefits later.  Immediately we feel calmer, clearer, more ready for good sleep, and metabolically in better shape. Over time, we get lowered risks of all sorts of bad health outcomes, from bone fractures to dementia to cardiovascular disease and on.

This advice holds for everyone– small children, teenagers, pregnant women, older adults, people with chronic illness, people with disabilities– everyone. 

A new message for this version: everything counts.  Every minute of walking.  Every flight of stairs. Every time you park far away from a building. Every load of laundry you haul around. It all adds up, and it is all beneficial for us.

That’s really good news.  And it’s important.  Why?

Because, right now, only 20% of Americans engage in physical activity that meets the guidelines. It looks like this:

2 out of 10– the two are in gray…

In Canada it’s the same– a 2016 report showed that only 2 out of 10 Canadians meet their physical guidelines of 60 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. 

Why is that?

Probably everyone who reads this blog knows how hard it is to start and continue an exercise or activity program from scratch. Here’s what some of them look like:

  • loads of jumping jacks

  • I can’t even read this chart.
  • Beginner squats– do a lot

These look rather daunting to me, and I’m usually one of those gray persons who meets the physical activity guidelines.

I wonder what it would be like if governments released a tl:dr version of the guidelines that just said this:

Move. Everything counts.

I even generated a meme for it:

Move.  Everything counts. Picture of a woman’s feet in flip flops, with blue jeans on.

You’re welcome, US and Canada! Other countries– you may borrow this as well.

Readers, how much or how often do you pay attention to or work on extending your everyday movement in your lives (apart from anything organized, like classes, rides, swims, gym workouts, etc.)?   I’m curious to know if and how and when it figures into your activity.

cycling · holiday fitness · holidays · running

Streaking Sam Style

Sam B7 Comments

I’ve had some great holiday running streaks. See here and here and here.

But I’ve said a sad goodbye to running. I still struggle see here. When Running World put out their annual call to streak, I shared it on our Facebook page and said I wouldn’t be joining in.

What’s the #RWRunStreak?
The rules are simple: Run at least one mile per day, every day, starting on Thanksgiving (November 22) and ending on New Year’s Day (January 1). That’s 41 consecutive days of running.

And then it hit me. I could do a bike version. Ride everyday from November 22 to January 1. I laid out my winter options here.

I’m going to count riding outside (obviously) but also spin classes and riding on the bike trainer. 41 days in a row of riding over the holidays. I’m in.

Join me? (You can do your own version. Running, biking, swimming, whatever. You choose.)

fitness · skiing · winter

Jennifer’s Pro-tip: Find a thing you love! (Guest post)

Sam B1 Comment

by Jennifer Tamse

Jennifer cross country skiing

Canadian Protip #1: Find a winter sport that you love, and each snowfall will be met with a renewed sense of fervor and spirit. And if you’re still looking for that special something, go into the attic, dust the dirt and cobwebs off grandma’s skis, and join me. 

#canadianwinters#xcountry#xcountryski#touring#adventure#warmupwithastout#canadian#winterwonderland 

Jennifer is an amateur philosopher, self-described Trekkie and craft beer aficionado, Jennifer has close to a decade of experience driving innovation and change in the hospitality sector and beverage industries. In her spare time, she enjoys x-country skiing, hiking, antiquing and progressive rock music.

cycling · fitness

Sam’s ‘no excuses’ winter cycling plan!

Sam B1 Comment
Sam's bike on a trainer in front of her computer
Sam’s bike on a trainer in front of her computer

Part 1: Bike on the trainer in my home office. It’s good for weekday evening mini-spins and longer sessions on the weekend. This is my old house set up from last year. This year it will actually require unpacking my home office and setting up the computer. On the bright side the floor is carpeted and it will be quieter. Though truth be told there’s only so much time on the trainer I can take.

Part 2: Bike commuting on the fat bike and weekend playing. I’m not a fan of the indoors.

Sam on a fat bike in the snow
Sam on a fat bike in the snow

Part 3: Spin classes on campus. My favourite is bike yoga with is 30 min of spin, followed by 30 of yoga stretches for cyclists

Part 4. Sarah and I have scoped out a place called the Bike Shed which runs trainer classes indoors. You just bring your bike. They supply the trainers. And the tech. 

Part 5. Go South! We have a plan to visit Jeff on the boat in January in Florida. Planning to motor around the Florida Keys and get out each day for a ride. We haven’t decided yet whether we are taking road bikes and flying with them or if we’ll rent bikes there. 

Image result for florida keys bike path
Map of the Florida Keys Heritage Trail
View of the ocean from the Florida Keys Heritage Trail
View of the ocean from the Florida Keys Heritage Trail
fitness

The latest from Catherine’s USA yoga tour– Yinki class in San Diego

catherine w1 Comment

Last weekend I was in San Diego for the American Public Health Association conference, which is huuuge– at least 12,000 people were expected to attend. That means a lot of walking to and fro in a big convention center (and to a nearby enormous hotel for more meetings), and interacting with a lot-a-lot of people (albeit friendly public health folks).

I’m a classic extrovert (although the latest research and commentary is critical of the distinction and is at least reimagining it; here’s one newer take on it).  However, even I can get tired of all that interaction with crowds of people all day long.  So what’s the perfect antidote to a day of conferencing? an evening yoga class, of course.

It has been so much fun this year checking out yoga classes in other cities where I’ve been traveling for work. In July I encountered yin yoga for the first time at a lovely little studio in Tucson, AZ.  I wrote glowingly about how relaxing and also intense it was and could be.

Apparently I was late to the yin yoga party; Natalie and Cate have both enjoyed and posted about it here and here.  Others of our bloggers and readers also love it and some of them teach it, too.

Checking out yoga (or any fitness opportunities) in a new place requires a bit of advance research. I was looking for studios that offered classes I was interested in at times I could make it, and were also relatively convenient to where I was staying. Yeah, I guess all that’s obvious. But I was also looking for classes that seemed interesting or different from what I usually do at home or at my local studio.  And, for me, vigorous vinyasa was not on the table, as I’m still recovering from my sprained ankle (it’s going to take a few months to get back strength and balance. Sigh).

Imagine my surprise and curiosity when I saw this:

YINKI (registered trademark) (Yin yoga plus Reiki)

I was determined to check this out.  I know what yin yoga is, and I have some idea about what reiki is, but hadn’t experienced them together in one class.

Also, I just love the name Yinki.  It reminds me of the Teletubbies, in a good way.

The teletubbies– Po in red, Laa-Laa in yellow, Dipsy in green, and Tinky Winky in purple.

By the way, even the Teletubbies do yoga.  Well, actually, they watch some live-action kids do yoga. However, they seem flexible and rubbery enough to do many poses.  You can check out the episode  here. 

Back to the yinki class. Full disclosure: I am a reiki skeptic. However, the yin part of yinki was enough to get me in the door. And look what I saw when I entered this beautiful space:

A large Buddha head on a corner shrine with candles (lit during class).

The studio, called The Little Yoga Studio, is indeed little, but beautifully fitted up with warm wood paneled walls and honey-colored wood floors.  I borrowed a mat from them, got my blocks, bolster, strap, and even a little eye pillow, and proceeded to set up. 

The studio before class.

I was careful to put my mat in an inconspicuous spot, as the regulars at my studio can get a little territorial about their spaces.  Maybe it’s a Boston thing; after all, Bostonians are notorious for saving parking spaces in winter after they’ve shoveled their cars out.  Lawn chairs and trash cans are the favored spot markers, but just about anything obtrusive will do.

A milk crate with large doll in it, keeping watch over a recently shoveled parking space in Boston.

However, when I asked these women whether I was in anyone’s way, they looked friendly but quizzical.  They told me I could go anywhere I liked.  Okay, then..

Friendly women hanging out before yoga class.

What followed was 75 minutes of sometimes intense, sometimes soothing yin yoga.  The teacher went around to each of us and put her hands on us during every extended pose. That was the Reiki part. She also used some essential oils (I noticed the lavender especially) that she had on her hands, which smelled nice and not overpowering.

I didn’t feel anything unusual during the Reiki, but it was really nice to be personally attended to, and it felt comforting and not at all intrusive. I admit that I don’t mind at all when a yoga teacher touches me for adjustment; YMMV. If you’re not feeling touch-friendly, this is probably not the class for you.  But it felt therapeutic, business-like as it were, and fine.

Finding ways to be active, to move and stretch, to connect with how I’m feeling during conference travel is more important to me these days. Partly it’s because travel is harder on my 56-year-old body.  Air travel is uncomfortable no matter what, and my plane to LAX seemed even more tin-can-like than usual. Then there’s jet lag, restaurant food, reception food, and more sitting than I would prefer. 

There’s another reason I like to be active while traveling: connecting to a local studio or local active event makes me feel more at home, in part because I’m around people who are at their home. It’s a good way to learn about  potentially new-to-us ways that people do the things we do.  I’ve found this by doing some local group rides while traveling, and visiting local yoga places is a new fun thing that’s easier to do than cycling– less gear required, and if I pick the wrong level by mistake, I’m still in the same studio with everyone else. That is, all yoga classes are no-drop.  I like that.

Fear not, with woman doing crow pose (I think).  She’s doing an arm balance, which I still cannot do…

Dear readers– have you had good (or bad) experiences dropping in on yoga or exercise or other classes while you were out of town? Do you recommend this?  Do you have any tips? I’d love to hear from you.